Conventionally, bead winders similar to the one shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 have been used to plane weld beads from a weld zone of manufactured metal pipe. The conventional bead winder operates as follows: A planing blade 1 planes a weld bead C from a pipe A. A guide roller R guides the planed weld bead C upward and laterally away from pipe A and planing blade 11 towards a take up reel W rotated by a motor M. Motor M is typically a pneumatic drive, which rotates take up reel W in weak torque. When steel pipe is first fed into the bead winder, an operator must manually guide the first portion of weld bead C planed from the pipe above the guide roller R and wind it onto take up reel W using a tool such as pincers. Weld bead C which is thereafter planed is guided over guide roller R to take up reel W by means of the winding force applied by motor M. Because take up reel W has a limited capacity, the electric seamed steel pipe manufacturing equipment must be stopped at periodic intervals to allow the operator to remove the wound up weld bead C from take up reel W and dispose of it.
The above described method of using equipment with a take up reel to plane weld bead has several problems. The operator is required to manually manipulate the initially planed off weld bead using pincers or a similar tool. The planed off weld bead is sharp and hot, and manual handling could cause a labor accident, such as an incision wound or a burn. Furthermore, the take up reel has a finite capacity. As a result, the whole assembly line must be stopped periodically in order to remove the wound weld beads from the take up reel.
The present invention improves upon the prior method in several ways. It does not require manual handling of the planed off weld bead. Furthermore, it continuously chops and disposes of the weld bead and as it is planed off, so the assembly line does not need to be stopped in order to unload and dispose of the weld bead.